My mother and father both worked when I was young. Most mothers didn’t work in the late 1960s and early 1970s, so my parents' what-to-do-with-our-darlings summer options were limited — a little summer Bible camp, a few afternoons of swimming lessons, maybe a craft thing or two.

The options were further limited by the fact I would object to anything my mother proposed. Swimming lessons? I knew how to swim. Crafts? Twenty-minutes from me about the horrors of potholders and decoupage. Bible camp? Don’t make me, please.

My brother was far more malleable. Sign him up and he was off. Me? Sign me up and then sit through a summer of my whining and pouting.

When I was 9, my parents sent me to sleep-away camp. I think they decided to make someone else listen to me whine for two weeks.

Really, I asked to go. I have no idea what I was thinking other than my friend, Jenny Norman, went to camp and I made a concerted effort to do what Jenny did. Love the Partridge Family? Me, too. Love a fourth-grade boy named Tommy McCarthy? Me, too. Love summer camp?

I hated it, of course.

I didn't like anything about camp. Camp had swimming lessons and crafts, it also had bugs, sleep-outs on the ground — the ground! — and everything from bread to socks had a little mildew on it. Camp also had happy counselors who expected cheerful participation. They didn’t care if I whined.

Summer programs are a topic of conversation this time of year. I’ve heard about this summer activity and that summer activity. I’m about 40 years past my own days of summer activities, but some of them still can make me shudder.

I’m no more papier-mache compliant at 51 than I was at 11.

But, New Cumberland resident Kelly Cloak and a team of mothers and fathers have something going on in June at the New Cumberland Borough Park that is not your average felt-and-glue summer activity: Patriot Camp.

Patriot Camp, which started in Paxtang about three years ago, is the brainchild of a group of mothers who wanted to fill what they saw as gaps in their children’s American history educations. The camp teaches children about the whys, wherefores, people and values surrounding the founding of our country. The camp’s timing, near July 4, is not an accident.

This year, Cloak, who has been involved with the camp for three years, and a team of parents are bringing Patriot Camp to New Cumberland. The camp, as Cloak describes it, also explores concepts and uses experiential learning to teach those concepts. At one point, the children wrap their feet in linens and walk through a baby pool filled with icy water to learn what marching with George Washington was like.

No potholders in that activity.

The camp, which is open to first- through fifth-graders, has room for about 60 children and costs — wait for it — nothing. Cloak said children shouldn’t miss out because of cost.

The camp will run June 24-28 in New Cumberland Borough Park. For more information, go to New Cumberland Patriot Camp's Facebook page or send an email to ncpatriotcamp@yahoo.com.

Allison
Dougherty can be reached at allisondougherty@aol.com and will accept ideas for
column topics.